Everyone Poops: The Movie Trailer

With the buzz for Where the Wild Things Are coming to theaters later this year, a new book adaptation has arisen - Taro Gomi's 'Everyone Poops'. The timeless classic about one of the essential parts of life is now coming to a theater near you. How will they turn a such a short piece of literature into a feature film? In all seriousness if they ever made this movie, it would be the end of that production company.


I remember this book as a kid, but my parents taught me with Alona Frankel's 'Once Upon a Potty.' I remember the book even came with my very own thrown. Here's a video adaptation of the book:


Parents.com has listed its 14 Favorite Potty Training Books

Last but not least, if you haven't seen this potty training video from Japan, it's a classic:

What Might Have Been Where the Wild Things Are

The trailer for Spike Jonze's live adaptation of the children's book Where the Wild Things Are recently was released. I stumbled upon a bit of info about Disney's attempt at adapting this film into an animated feature in the 80's. At this time, Tron had recently been made and the use of computer graphics were being toyed around with to create a complete animated feature film. The characters were going to be 2D traditionally hand drawn with the backgrounds being rendered in 3D. John Lasseter directed this test shot below. I'm not sure if Disney was actually going to make this into a film, but I know Lasseter wanted this demo to be a means to an ends to create The Brave Little Toaster to look like this. Disney animators apparently didn't like it, Lasseter got fired, and The Brave Little Toaster ended up completely 2D. It's crazy that all this was part of the history that led Lasseter to create Pixar.

Here's the Disney test shot, the Max character looks like one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan:


If you forgot the story, here's a reading w/ animations of the books pictures:


Here's the trailer for Jonze's film, not sure how a 20 page book turns into a feature film:

Origins of the Cashew Chicken

I found a post at The Fortune Cookie Chronicles Blog that the New York Times had an expose about the origins of 'Springfield'-style Cashew Chicken. It's a great piece, and still proves Jennifer 8 Lee's take on Chinese food as we know it is very American.

Read the piece here by the Times: Missouri Chinese: Two Cultures Claim This Chicken

And if you love Chinese food, don't mind a good read, and still haven't read The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, get a hold of it! Check out an old post I had about the book.

Don't want to read the book? Would you rather watch a lecture? Here's a clip of a talk Jennifer 8 Lee had on Chinese food history in America:


A tad repetitive, but a tad bit longer and more extensive, here's a talk Lee had at Google:

Farewell Michael Crichton....

Yesterday the bestselling author, film maker, and Harvard MD Michael Crichton passed away from cancer at the age of 66. One of his most notable works, and one of my favorite movies, was Jurassic Park. I won't go too much into detail about Jurassic Park's impact on me as I mentioned it when Stan Winston died earlier this year, but his book exposed me to modern adult fiction and many of his works are favorites of mine. His writing was always tied to science while pushing its limits and making a fantastic read. Not only did he write novels, but he also wrote screenplays like Twister and directed films like Westworld. His medical expertise also led him to create the hit show, which ironically is on its 15th and final season, ER. Some of his books that were adapted to film include The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, The Great Train Robbery, Disclosure, and Timeline. Congo and Sphere were great pageturners that were unfortunately adapted to terrible films. His scientific views have also created some controversy including his views on global warming , environmentalism, and political influence on science.

Here's a short video with some bits of his film adaptations:


This is a really interesting interview with Charlie Rose:


A great lecture by Crichton on science and politics:


Crichton answers a question on his view of environmentalism as a religion:

Deliciously Good Read

I've just finished this book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Wha?! That's right, I've not only read and finished a book in a week but it's about Chinese food. Author Jennifer 8. Lee (numerology infused into one's name), an American born Chinese writer for The New York Times, writes about the impact of Chinese food in America and how American the Chinese food we have in the States really is. Like the title of the book, a major portion of Lee's quest is to figure out the origins of the fortune cookie after a series of lucky numbers from a fortune garners a lot of Powerball Lottery winners. Other interesting topics in the book include the history of Chinese takeout in New York City, Asian manufacturers' fight to have any soy sauce that is not naturally soy brewed to not be classified as soy sauce, Fold-Pak food pails, Jewish people's connection to Chinese food, why General Tso has chicken named after him like Colonel Sanders, and the lofty task of finding the greatest Chinese restaurant outside of China. The most I got out of it, being a Chinese-American, was the history the restaurant industry and its impact on Chinese culture in America. Much of the Chinese food here in America is all-American because the food is a fusion of Chinese and what Americans like in food. I also realize now that the stuff my grandma's been making for years is probably the real Chinese food. Like they used to say on Reading Rainbow I'll tell you to go to your local library or bookstore and pick up a copy today because it's a great read, but don't take my word for it!

This book also reminded me about an article the Seattle Weekly did about the history of teriyaki restaurants in Seattle. Check it out here.

Visit Lee's blog at the fortunecookiechronicles.com, especially after you've read the book. There are a lot of pictures from her journeys that she wrote about in the book.

Here's an NPR interview with Lee and an excerpt from the book as well.

I don't watch The Colbert Report, but I found out about the book from this interview between Colbert and Lee awhile back while channel surfing: